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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Well it’s finally that time! I can’t believe the wedding is just 3 short days away.

Today was my last day at work, and tonight will be spent packing and running some last-minute errands before we depart tomorrow. I am driving down with my parents tomorrow morning, while Brian will arrive later tomorrow evening in my car with one of the groomsmen who is flying into Birmingham tomorrow afternoon.

After we arrive tomorrow, the plan is to get my parents checked into their condo (I'm staying with them Thursday night), then my dad will go pick up my sister, brother-in-law and nephews at the Pensacola airport. Meanwhile my mom and I will go shopping for groceries and for supplies for my lingerie shower Friday night. Then later on Brian and I are going out with the young folks who will already be in town – I foresee a trip to the Flora-Bama!

I am so excited to FINALLY meet my youngest nephew Ryan tomorrow. I can’t believe he is 10 months old and I have YET to meet him, it makes me feel like a horrible auntie. I hope that Jake, my older nephew (3) and our ring bearer, remembers me. I look forward to spending some time with him tomorrow and Friday.

It has been quite a whirlwind lately and I haven’t been able to blog nearly as much as I want. Stay tuned for lots of future posts on:

the ceremony and reception

the honeymoon

and of course… my dress! So excited that I will finally be able to talk about it.

We’ll be driving back May 4 and recovering on May 5 before I return to work on May 6, so start looking for new posts then! You can also follow me on Twitter. I plan to tweet a bit over the course of the wedding and honeymoon, as long as it doesn't drive Brian too crazy. My Twitter account is private, so get your request in soon so I can allow you to follow me before we get to Disney and have to pay for Internet access.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

I've been hard at work planning all those last-minute details. I had a GREAT phone call yesterday with our DJs, a married couple named Bill and Jeannie, who are driving all the way to the wedding from the Clearwater, Fla., area. They travel all along the Gulf Coast for weddings.

Anyhow, Bill and Jeannie suggested getting all the formalities out of the way as early as possible, which is why we're going immediately from the bridal party introduction to toasts to dinner to cake cutting to first dance and so on. This is all especially true because we only have a 3-hour long reception. Unfortunately there is a noise ordinance at The Beach Club that keeps receptions from going past 10 p.m. So without further ado, here is the plan:

Saturday, April 11, 2009

A post from Jenny reminded me that I’ve regretted to mention yet another change in our Disney honeymoon plans. We are now staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, compliments of Brian’s best man, who paid for the upgrade as our wedding gift.

Friday, April 10, 2009

I am getting more and more ecstatic with each passing day, and less and less stressed out.

This weekend, I am picking up my dress, getting a haircut and a facial, shopping for undergarments and jewelry, assembling bridsmaid gifts, finding 'something old' to wear, and assembling the program fans.

Next Saturday is haircolor, waxing and manicure, then next Sunday, Brian and I are doing the first half of our "Love Story" video with Superium Productions in Tuscaloosa, where we met and got engaged.

Here's what's left on the to-do list:

-Finalize list of reception songs and reception timeline for DJ. Brian and I are working on this presently.

-Dance classes? I hope we can squeeze in 1 or 2 before the wedding. I just don’t know if it’s feasible for us to have more than 1 class now, maybe.

-Pick up my shoes which are getting dyed light blue. Picking these up Tuesday.

-Have Men's Wearhouse tailor Brian's suit. It only takes a week to tailor, so Brian is dropping it off Tuesday.

-Make sure all groomsmen have bought the correct khaki pants. Working on this...we had a bit of an issue with this because one of the groomsmen wear a 28x36 pant. Crazy!

-Finalize guest headcount and give to florist, linen rental company, and venue. We have to have the headcount in tomorrow...we think we have a fairly accurate count.

-Get groomsmen gifts ready. Brian will work on this after he returns home from the bachelor extravaganza.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Didn’t accomplish a whole lot this weekend, but did manage to get a couple things done as seen in the list below.

On a serious note, the hardest part is seeing how few of our friends are able to make it for the wedding. The economy has really taken a bite out of everyone's extra spending $ for traveling. The wedding is turning out to be much more intimate than I thought, but it's OK. I think it will work for a beach wedding. We just have to meet the food minimum.

Other brides and newlyweds, did you have a hard time getting RSVPs back in the mail from your friends? It's a hard topic to talk about, because of course everyone wants to be seen as popular and well-loved among their circle of friends, but it seems like a lot of my friends have simply flaked out and dropped off the face of the Earth. Luckily my bridal party is amazing -- they're the 3 best friends, sister and future stepsister-in-law I could ask for! But it's just been surprising at how noncommunicative about half of my close friends from college, high school and here in Birmingham have been. It's puzzling, really, and makes me feel as if I've done something wrong, or if they simply don't feel the same way about me that I feel about them. Or maybe they're too absorbed in their own lives. Thoughts?

Updated to-do list:

-Finish Blurb.com photo guestbook. This has to be done ASAP because it takes 5-6 business days to print and 3-5 business days to ship, unless I pay extra for overnight or 2-day shipping. Eeek!

-Finalize ceremony with pastor, then make program fans. I’ll do it this weekend at my parent’s house because they have a new printer and I will have a lot more room to spread out and get it all done. This will happen this weekend while Brian is at has Bachelor party.

-Finalize list of reception songs and reception timeline for DJ. Brian and I are working on this presently.

-Dance classes? I hope we can squeeze in 1 or 2 before the wedding. I just don’t know if it’s feasible for us to have more than 1 class now, maybe.

-Book rehearsal dinner venue. Brian is taking care of this. I hope we can get something nailed down soon. Brian is still hammering away at this.

-Ordered wedding cake & groom’s cake at Publix. We decided on vanilla cake with cannoli filling and buttercream icing for the wedding cake, and chocolate cake with German chocolate filling and fudge icing for the groom’s cake. The wedding cake will be light blue and decorated with ivory Swiss dots – so cute!

-Met with florist, dropped off aisle marker lanterns and other supplies, decided bouquet wrap ribbon colors and talked about some final details with flowers.

-Got our marriage license!

Here are some other things we’ve managed to accomplish recently:

-My mom went to the local feed store and bought galvanized washtubs to hold the programs and bottled water for the ceremony.

-My mom ordered small glass votive holders and white railroad lanterns for the reception centerpieces, as well as white finger starfish. There will be 3 glass votives, 3 railroad lanterns and 3 starfish per table.

-I don’t need to order flower petals or decorate the flower girl basket because the florist is taking care of it for us. Yay!

-Also no cake topper was ordered because I decided on fresh flowers instead. There will be ivory calla lilies on top and ivory roses at the base of the cake.

-My sister found a baby blue short sleeve button down shirt for my nephew to wear as ring bearer.